ONORIO (Flavius Honorius), ROMAN EMPEROR. — Son of Theodosius the Great, born at Constantinople on 9 September 384, died at Ravenna on 15 August 423. In
393, together with his brother Arcadius, he was proclaimed Augustus and associated in the government of the Empire. At his father’s death (395), he assumed the government of the West under the guidance of Stilicho, whose daughter Maria he married in 398, and, after her death, her sister Termantia.
Young, inexperienced, and fickle, he fell victim to cunning courtiers. As long as he was able to benefit from the work of his father-in-law, his government was relatively tranquil and secure. In 402, in fact, Stilicho defeated Alaric’s barbarians at Pollentia, and the following year at Verona, while in 405 at Florence he defeated Huns, Sarmatians, and Goths. But in 408 Stilicho lost the office of magister militum, because he was suspected of wanting to raise his own son Eucherius to the Empire, and was killed. From then on, the Empire was afflicted by barbarian invasions and the rebellions of usurpers. In 408, in fact, Alaric besieged Rome and withdrew only after receiving a substantial payment; peace negotiations were also initiated with the intervention of Pope Innocent I, but the barbarian’s demands were rejected twice. Alaric then returned to besiege Rome, elected an opponent of O. in the person of Attalus, and in 410 sacked the city.
O. favored Christianity and hastened the end of paganism through a series of laws. As early as March 395, he confirmed all the privileges granted by his predecessors, obliging the authorities to protect the clergy. The following August he prohibited public sacrifices and entry into the temples; in 396 he removed every immunity and privilege from the pagan priests. In 407 he ordered the closure and stripping of the temples, and in 408 excluded all enemies of the Catholic religion from the imperial Palace. In 411 he had the Donatists expelled from Africa, and in 418 the Pelagians.
He also enacted good laws to revive the economy of Italy, which had been gravely damaged by the wars, and sought especially to repair the damage suffered by Rome in 410. As early as 403 he had established Ravenna as the capital of the Western Empire.